


Prelude: Copycat

by CuteAsAMuntin



Series: Before and After [1]
Category: Deadpool (Comics), Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Alpha Vanessa Carlysle, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Butt Plugs, Copycat (Deadpool), Deadpool Thought Boxes, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Heavy Angst, Knotting, Light BDSM, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mentions of Cancer, Mild Gore, Omega Verse, Omega Wade Wilson, Oral Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sub Wade Wilson, Top Wade Wilson, Vaginal Sex, Verbal Abuse, Weapon X Project, pre Peter Parker/Wade Wilson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24226636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteAsAMuntin/pseuds/CuteAsAMuntin
Summary: Before Deadpool met Spider-Man, the Regenerating Degenerate was just Wade Wilson, mouthy mercenary and happy Omega of Vanessa Carlysle, the hottest Alpha on two legs. Then Wade's streak of good luck ran out.A prequel toAftermath.
Relationships: Vanessa Carlysle/Wade Wilson
Series: Before and After [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748596
Kudos: 26





	1. Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Gabby227](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gabby227/pseuds/gabby227) for beta reading and catching all my super whack punctuation.

“You again? Are you kidding me?” Wade grinned at the dark-eyed woman as he sauntered across the darkened, hazy room to her vantage point at the bar. His confident gait made it clear that he was completely unfazed by her exasperated words and admonishing tone. She barely had to tilt her chin up to meet his gaze with her own appraising look. “I can’t believe you’re actually back. You’ve got some balls, I’ll give you that.”

“Hey there, stranger,” he drawled, leaning up against the sticky bartop. He ran a lightly-scarred hand through his tangle of blonde hair in a gesture that might have been mistaken for sheepish on someone with smaller biceps, or who was perhaps carrying fewer pieces of unconcealed deadly weaponry. “I got a little held up at work,” he explained.

“A little held up,” the woman repeated. “For _five_ extra weeks? You expect me to buy that, Wilson?” she scoffed in disbelief. The brunette backed up a few steps to take a seat on a barstool, barely bothering to adjust her tiny pleather skirt as it rode up her tanned, muscular thighs.

“Okay, and maybe my burner also got destroyed a week into it,” he admitted. “I managed to get knocked into the river during a firefight,” he added, as if the explanation were a lifeline. He scuffed a heavy boot through the mess of cigarette butts and bottle caps on the floor. He didn’t want to think about the miserable time he’d spent hiding out and gathering his own fresh intel to complete the mission, or the fact that he’d been so focused on his worry at not being able to reach her that he hadn’t been able to enjoy his work or get creative.

“I thought you were dead this time, asshole,” the stunning woman snapped coldly at Wade. She turned abruptly away from him, apparently to touch up the dark coloring on her full lips in a compact mirror slipped from her clutch. She sniffed quietly, and he caught a glimpse of her watering eyes over her shoulder in the mirror’s reflection. He shuffled a few steps closer, encouraged when she didn’t move away from him.

“I’m sorry, Nessa. I really am. I didn’t mean to worry you. I missed you so much,” he said softly, wrapping his arms around her and resting the side of his head against hers. He gestured to the tired-looking bartender, who quickly made their way over with the pair’s usual drinks. Wade slid the neat whiskey over and pulled the Dirty Shirley toward himself. He plucked a cherry from the drink and offered it up to Vanessa, who eyed it a moment before accepting it delicately between her teeth. He nuzzled gratefully into the back of her neck. 

“Can I buy up the rest of your time tonight? I just want to go home.”

Vanessa sighed and sagged a little against his broad chest, breath coming in and out raggedly. Wade stood patiently, and only moved to free one arm and start combing his fingers through her dark hair. She continued to sit silently and relaxed by inches, gradually leaning more of her weight against him, before seeming to finally come to a decision. She turned to kiss him, placing a hand firmly on either side of his stubble-shadowed jaw. 

“Don’t you ever, ever pull that shit again, you hear me? You’re memorizing my number, and the next time you lose a phone, the first thing you do is buy a new burner and text me from it. Idiot.”

“I promise, Alpha.”

“Alright, babe,” Ness agreed. “I missed you too. Let’s go home.” 


	2. Feeling the Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earning that E rating right here

Wade sighed into the kiss, already feeling the edges of his awareness begin to soften as the grip on his hair tightened. He did his best to keep upright and not trip on the worn carpet as Vanessa guided him backward down the narrow hall from the elevator to their apartment door, soft mouth still pressed insistently against his. He hadn’t been farther from home than West Linn for almost two months since his unintentional extended disappearance, only taking jobs that kept him away for less than 48 hours. Ness hadn’t outright asked him to do anything of the sort, much less demanded anything of him after he proved that he had memorized her phone number— which also had been far more fun than he expected it to be. Vanessa was a big fan of positive reinforcement, just one more thing Wade loved about her.

She had, however, started hovering around him anxiously over the past week and a half, checking in before she left for the bar each evening, pestering him about how he was feeling before and after the few short missions he’d taken, ending her nights earlier and earlier. When she started scrubbing herself down completely in the shower and changing her clothes the moment she walked in the door, Wade had finally had enough and confronted her about her odd behavior. In turn, she had admitted that she was afraid she would miss the beginning of his heat, that she wouldn’t be there to take care of him when he needed her, and even that smelling other people on her would cause him distress so close to the start of it. At the reveal, he had almost started laughing, somehow still startled that she cared enough to track his heats herself despite everything they’d already been through together. He’d promised to let her know as soon as he needed her, if she would promise to stop worrying.

And he had, he’d been so good. He’d let her know that morning that he was starting to feel antsy, but that it was still minimal enough that she shouldn’t feel the need to skip out on a night of work suckering in a few johns. The moment he’d noticed that the general sense of anxiety and discomfort he’d been feeling all day had escalated into restless pacing and a flushing, full-body ache that made him want to start stripping his clothes off, he’d called her, and he’d run to meet her downstairs in their building’s lobby when she said she was on her way home. He hadn’t cared that she smelled like she’d been touching other people, just like she’d been so worried about earlier in the week. That was just her job, and he couldn’t give less of a shit about it. What mattered was that now she was here. She had come right to him when he needed her, just like she promised. She always did.

Vanessa finally managed to unlock the apartment door she had pressed Wade up against, allowing it to swing open. With giddy laughter, they stumbled over the pile of boots, coats, and weapons crowding the tiny entryway higgledy-piggledy. Even the minor wave of cramps that had him catching himself against the wall didn’t stop their haphazard, blissful progress.

“You want to help me out here, big guy?” Nessa asked with a playful smirk, already tugging his belt open and using the ends to lead him down the narrow hallway to their warmly-lit bedroom. He shed his t-shirt carelessly and followed her without resisting. His eyes stayed glued to his Alpha as she shoved him down onto the bed that filled most of the space. She guided him onto a heap of soft pillows that he didn’t remember being there that morning. She had made sure a nest was ready for him, just in case. Wade was distracted from the well of tenderness that was threatening to rise up from within him by Vanessa’s fingers threading through his blonde locks again.

“Stay with me, babe,” she said with a little shake. “I’ve got you. Nothing is going to happen that we didn’t already talk about. Nothing bad is going to happen to you if you change your mind or want to stop something,” she reminded him. “You can just relax and have fun, and you don’t have to worry about anything else, okay?”

He knew it would be fine. This wasn’t exactly the first time he had shared a heat with her, and it wasn’t even close to the most intense play they’d done. She was always like this, treating him like he was special and valuable, and that was only amplified when he was open and vulnerable like this, when he couldn’t hide himself behind the persona of the brash, degenerate killer everyone else in the world knew him to be.

“Ness,” he sighed happily, finding his voice. He could feel himself slipping again as her hand that didn’t have a tight hold on his blonde hair started to unlace his boots. “‘Course I’ll be okay. Got the best girlfriend. The best Alpha.” He could sense how much that pleased her, the warmth and contentment and arousal her response incited in him causing him to wriggle around a little in her grip. The light restraint of her hands on him was pleasant and grounding, and it was hard not to be distracted. The flushed, restive feeling that had started spreading through him hours ago was finally starting to peak. He could feel his own slickness starting to drip out of him and pool behind his balls as what he hoped were the last of his cramps passed, making a mess of his boxer-briefs.

At last, the laces of his boots were loose enough, and he was able to kick them off. Nessa grabbed his open belt again, tracing her tongue along a thin, raised scar that crossed one tight pec as she pulled it from the loops and unbuttoned his jeans. Normally, he wouldn’t even bother to begin taking his clothes off until he’d pulled her down to ride his face until his jaw was sore, but he was already starting to feel like he might cry if he had to feel the trapping, constricting denim touch his skin for another minute.

“Off,” Ness commanded with a gesture, sensing his discomfort. Wade yanked his jeans and underwear off as quickly as he could, half-hard dick springing free and rapidly filling out as she eyed him hungrily for a moment before leaning over him again. Her mouth moved across the smattering of old, silvery scars on his torso and thighs.

“My pretty boy,” she murmured, hot and teasing against his cock, licking and sucking on the scent glands at his groin. “Already so good for me. Let me see you.” She pressed her fingers against his inner thighs, making him draw his knees up and spread his legs a little. His breath was already coming in pitiful pants and whimpers, his fingers grasping the edges of the pillows above his head tightly. Her fingers brushed along his cock, making it twitch and let loose a dribble of precum. Her fingers drifted down further, lightly caressing and tugging on his balls, before finally reaching his asshole, which already had a fresh trickle of slick coming from it.

“Poor baby. I know, you need to get filled up just about as bad as you need to fill me up, don’t you?” Vanessa rubbed the pads of her fingers against the outside of his hole, smiling up at the trembling ex-soldier. He whined and nodded in desperate agreement, doing his best to press against her hand without moving away out of the position she’d set him in. Carefully, deliberately, she slid two fingers most of the way into him, just as much as she knew he could take without any real preparation when he was already so worked up. His whines became more frantic and insistent, and he immediately began rocking back and forth on her fingers, his asshole clenching and unclenching around them like it was begging for more.

“Please, Ness, please. I’ll be good. Whatever you want, I promise. I’ll be good, I’ll be good, I’ll be—” Wade cut off with an almost tortured groan, words seeming to fail him as her fingers slid in a little deeper, stretching him wider before she removed them entirely. His dick was weeping precum at that point, so hard it almost hurt, and a steady dribble of slick was leaking from him.

“Mm, perfect,” the Alpha breathed. She leaned over the edge of the bed and reached behind herself. When she sat back up, she was holding his favorite plug, pulled from the box of toys stored under their bed: glittery pink silicone, half again as wide at the base as his own dick was and about as much as he could comfortably handle for any lengthy stretch of time. Wade groaned again, this time in delighted anticipation, and his eyes widened.

“We’re going to get your hole nice and full, and then you’re going to be good and fill me up with that fat dick,” she explained with far too sweet a smile. With a whine, Wade flipped over and rose up onto all fours, reaching one hand behind himself to better spread his ass for her without needing to be asked.

“God, you’re fucking perfect,” Vanessa bit out again, sounding almost tortured herself. Wade felt her soft, hot tongue catch a trail of slick that had just started to drip down his taint, following it back to the source. He pressed his face into the mattress and tried not to scream at the almost-frantic pace at which his pleasure was climbing toward its peak. “Absolutely perfect, my sweet little slut,” she continued, taking a moment to lift her head and breathe freely before shoving her tongue into his hole and licking at the gush of slick brought on by her words. That time he did scream, which only seemed to further encourage the Alpha pinning him to the bed. She fucked him open with her tongue and then with her fingers, alternately praising him and digging her nails into his thighs as a reminder to keep them spread.

“Please, please, I-I can’t, I’ll be good, please, I can’t,” Wade babbled mindlessly, pushing his hips back and arching his spine to present his ass as best he could for this beautiful, perfect woman. A hand pressed firmly into the small of his back to hold him in place as Ness finally slid the pink plug into his slick-dripping asshole, sweeping smoothly along his extra-sensitive prostate as it split him open at a torturously slow pace. His dick, already a dark pink from his arousal at being teased so interminably, drooled helplessly onto the sheets. Slick continued to drip steadily out of him as he struggled to keep still, moaning into the mattress and trying not to disobey his Alpha by just shoving his hips back and taking it all. At last, the widest point of the plug pressed past the tight guardian ring of muscle and slipped into him entirely, making him feel deliciously stretched out and occupied.

Vanessa nudged against Wade until he flipped over onto his back and spread his legs again with another wordless moan. She always had the best ideas. He grinned hazily as she leaned over to kiss him roughly and straddled his muscular thigh, slipping her own slim leg up against his body for him to grind either his cock or the base of his plug against. He gathered himself enough to reach up and roll her right nipple between his fingers with one hand and carefully circle her clit with the other. She was already so wet too, probably already on the verge of a rut to be able to keep up with him for the next few days. He reveled in the overload of sensation as she moaned into the kiss and sucked on his tongue.

Ness took mercy on him at last, after he lost track of time whimpering and shuddering, swearing and begging. “Are you ready?” she asked. He nodded, half-lidded eyes trying to focus on her face.

With a devilish grin, Nessa took both his hands in hers, kissing his fingers. She transferred his wrists to just one of her small, strong hands, pinned them against her sternum. She wrapped the fingers of her other hand around his cock, and then sank down onto his length, sheathing him in a slick, grasping heat that had him fighting not to scream again as he felt his modest Omega knot already begin to swell. She started to ride him in earnest, tossing her head back and letting out a few inventive swears of her own.

She leaned back to press on the plug with her free hand, reminding him how full he was and ramming the thickest part of it against his prostate. He couldn’t hold back anymore in the face of the hot, unfocused pleasure that coursed through his body. “Oh no!” he cried out, eyes snapping open and locking onto Nessa’s. He found himself shuddering and biting down harshly on his own lower lip as he came shallowly inside her, thankful that he was at least able to keep his head enough to keep his knot out of her until she was ready for it.

“Good boy,” Vanessa said with a delighted laugh. “Good job, sweet boy. You know you can just tell me instead of asking if you can cum during your heat if you need to,” she reassured. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’re just getting started. How fast can you give me another one? You know what I want.” She released Wade’s hands, and he wrapped them around her tightly, tipping her onto her back with a playful growl. He slid his dick, already hard again even though he was nowhere near the peak of his heat yet, further into her, stroking her clit and changing his angle until she moaned out an affirmation.

He lapped at the scent gland high on her neck till her thighs were shaking, then set his teeth where the Bonding bite would go around her neck’s lower scent gland instead. He bit down steadily until her fingers were wrapped in his hair and her pussy was tightening around him as she cried out. The taste of blood was overshadowed by her scent spiking with satisfaction and mingling with his own.

Wade sat up, pulling Vanessa with him onto his lap, and drove his entire length into her slick, tight cunt until he could feel his knot swelling and his balls tightening again. “Can I cum, can I cum, oh fuck, can I please—“ he chanted as he rocked up into her until he was spilling into her, pulling her small body firmly against the broad expanse of his chest as they temporarily locked together. The Alpha took the opportunity to tilt her head and lock her jaw around his scent gland, returning the Bonding mark. She continued to rock against him, slowly and steadily, as he tried valiantly to make his tongue work again, so he could tell her what he needed while he could still string words together.

“Wanna fill you up, my Alpha. Wanna be good and give it all to you, then lick all my cum out of you and make you cum until I can give you more,” he murmured into her ear, kissing her gently, but with a sense of urgency. The new Bond was already intensifying his need to please her, to show her that in the wake of every terrible thing he’d seen in the world, everything had happened to him and all the horrible things he’d done, she was the only person who gave his life meaning and joy and relief. “Please?”

“Oh yeah? Is that what you need, my Omega?”

“Please Ness, I just wanna be good for you. Lemme make you feel good. Just wanna be good for you. Just wanna be good,” he slurred out, his body shaking with the intensity as she continued to rock on his oversensitive cock, his cum already slowly dripping out of her and down his balls to the sheets that were covered in his slick as his little knot deflated. Vanessa leaned forward, kissing him slow and deep, like she had all the time in the world for him.

“You’re already good, Wade. Relax, baby. I’ve got you.”


	3. The Big C

The buzzing of the bright overhead lights seemed to get louder and louder, until it drowned out everything else. Life had always gleefully fucked Wade Wilson. He should have known that what he had with Vanessa was too good, too precious for him to be allowed to keep. He’d just hoped he’d have more than a couple of years with her first. At least a little more warning before it all went to shit.

“Six months?” he asked in a soft, weak voice that sounded nothing like the hardened mercenary he was outside this office. He felt Vanessa’s hand grip his own more tightly.

“If you pursue aggressive treatment and respond well to chemo and radiation therapy, then yes, you might have six months, perhaps even as long as a year,” the Beta doctor confirmed gently.

“And… what if I don’t do that?”

“What if you don’t? What do you mean, what if you don’t?” Ness interjected hotly, eyes swimming with angry, desperate tears.

“What if I don’t?” Wade repeated without looking at her, balling his hands into fists to fight the overwhelming urge to comfort his Alpha in response to the scent of her grief. He was the one dying of small cell lung carcinoma.

“Best case scenario? The average projection at your stage is about three months. That’s still plenty of time to, er, wrap up your affairs.” The doctor reached out a hand to awkwardly pat his shoulder, nodding deferentially to Vanessa. The rest of the appointment wrapped up quickly, and the mates made their way home in fraught, uncharacteristic silence that was broken as soon as they made it into the living room of their apartment.

“I don’t understand, Wade. How could you even _consider_ not going through treatment?!” Ness confronted him on his path to the bedroom. He sighed deeply, but was cut off with a hacking cough that left his chest heaving.

“I’m going to die either way, babe. There’s nothing anyone can do about it,” he said dully. “I’d at least like to go out on my terms. I don’t want to die in a hospital after spending six months puking my guts out and losing my hair. Not after spending all the money I’ve saved up doing the terrible shit that’s the only thing I’m good at on poison to try to drag my life out a few more weeks. Not when all that money could go to you instead. Look, I’m not a good person, and we both know that. I don’t have any illusions about having any dignity, but if I could choose between the two, I would want to be at home with you, still looking and feeling like myself,” he explained, scrubbing a hand across red-rimmed eyes. Vanessa faltered, then wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his heaving chest and stroking along his Bonding marks.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she admitted, her voice breaking. “It’s not fair. I love you, and I don’t want you to go.” Hot tears splashed onto his chest, soaking through his sweater. They sank down onto the couch together.

“I don’t really want to go either, babe,” Wade responded with a weak laugh, unable to keep the defeat entirely from his tone. “I love you more than anything. I’d take just about any job, do just about anything so we could have more time together, but I don’t think I really have a choice.”

“Okay. Yeah, okay. We’ll do it your way,” Ness finally agreed uneasily. Her voice was rough with barely-contained tears. She grasped both his hands and kissed them gently. They sat quietly like that until it got dark, both of them at a loss for words for what seemed like the first time since they had met.


	4. The Birth of Deadpool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 『White』 | 「Yellow」<\- for folks with work skins turned off

As it turned out, Wade did have a choice after all. When the Recruiter, dressed in a dark suit far too nice for the neighborhood, walked into the mostly-empty dive bar down the block from Wade’s apartment one evening a month or so after his diagnosis, Wade ignored him. He was just killing time until Vanessa decided she was done working for the night. He didn’t like being alone in their apartment anymore when he wasn’t out on a job. He probably wouldn’t have even registered the Recruiter at all if he hadn’t sat so close to him, only a couple barstools down.The man didn’t even bother to order a drink before he started making his sales pitch, no small talk to ease him in or attempts to appeal to Wade’s sense of patriotism and duty.

“There’s a new program called Weapon X. Might be able to help you. Canadian government is willing to make an exception for former Special Forces with your skills. Someone who’s willing to take a risk on the program and commit to a few more years of service. Your record speaks for itself, even with the dishonorable discharge from Uncle Sam. Just here to ask you to think about it.” The bland-looking man left a crisp, heavy business card on the bartop next to Wade’s beer and left without turning back.

Wade almost left the card there on the bar. Instead, he found himself pocketing it on his way out. A few days later, he was packing his duffel bag and on the phone with some other generic, nameless official, receiving instructions on when and where to meet the team he’d be joining up with to leave for the Department K compound. He was pretty sure he was still going to die anyway, but at least this way Vanessa wouldn’t have to watch. This way, she wouldn’t have to worry about any hospital bills or funeral bullshit afterward. The note he left her was half-apology, half-valediction. After all, he wasn’t really convinced he’d be coming out the other side.

Six months after Wade left, he really wished he’d just let himself stay home and die. His Bond with Vanessa had been strong, lasting through the procedure that successfully grafted some other agent’s healing factor mutation to him and several missions with his new field unit. When the mutation started to destabilize and his cancer came back, he was sent to Hospice.Despite that, his Bond was still there, still keeping him more grounded and alive than any of the other patients in the dead pool.

If there was one thing to be almost perversely grateful for when his Bond finally started to break down, it was that everything Killebrew did to him hurt so much and killed him so often, he almost didn’t notice it at first. When the slowly-creeping, inescapable burn of whatever was painstakingly eating away at his flesh was overtaken by hellish waves of terror and loneliness washing over him, he mistook the feelings drowning him for something else the Attendant was adding to the mix.

Whatever sarcastic comment he had been making to Ajax died on his lips with a garbled cry. As the feeling worsened, he realized that he was losing his last tangible tie to Vanessa. His last link to who he had been and why he had ended up here in the first place. What if he forgot her? What if he died here for real, and no one knew and no one cared? What if even Death got tired of having him around once he was there for good?

He struggled to pull himself together enough to say something before Ajax noticed what was happening to him and could figure out a way to make it even more severe. Or worse, that asshole might alert Killebrew and turn his breaking Bond into another drawn out, fucked up experiment that could hurt Ness almost as much as it hurt him. Maybe if he pissed Ajax off enough, he’d do something that would distract Wade from the way the inside of his head felt like someone was trying to scrape his brain smooth with a butterknife.

『Ajax? Is that really the best name Francis could come up with for himself? That’s hilarious. Oh, you want to piss him off? You should call him by his real name. It’ll drive him crazy trying to figure out how you learned it, too, after he wrecked Worm’s voice box the last time he told someone.』

“Hey Francis, I think you missed a—” Wade spat weakly, blood welling from his lacerated tongue and gums and bubbling over his lips. He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence, much less wonder where the knowledge the strange little voice had come from.

「I’m not gonna lie, I’m kinda turned on right now.」

Somehow, that first time Wade took advice from the boxes now floating over his head wasn’t also the last time.


	5. Meeting Copycat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 『White』 |「Yellow」<\- for folks with work skins turned off

Wade had never despised his healing factor more. Not even the time Killebrew had gone on vacation and Francis had pulled out his intestines, filled his abdominal cavity with razor wire, and sewed him back just up to watch his body try to heal itself for three straight days while he puked up half-formed organs and pieces of metal. He felt like he was falling apart, like Hospice had found some even more exciting, new way to torture him to death and back again. She was right there, she was alive, she was okay. Why was he falling to pieces all over again when his Alpha was back with him?

『She’s right there, and she’s completely fine. Being near us isn’t doing anything at all to her.』

「What are you talking about?」

『When the two of us showed up to keep this pathetic lump company.』

“This isn’t real, this isn’t happening, this isn’t real,” Wade hissed to himself.

“Whatcha doin’ over there, Deadpool?” the blue-skinned mutant who sounded and smelled like Vanessa tittered, tossing her mane of wavy, white hair over one colorfully-clad shoulder. She cocked her other pistol and bounced forward a few steps to force him further into the alleyway and away from the crowd. “Thought we were in the middle of something?”

「This is going to suck, isn’t it. Even I know it’s going to be bad.」

『Yes. It probably is.』

Wade saw the muzzle flash and heard the sound of the gunshot, but they felt far enough apart as to be completely unrelated events. Neither really seemed to have anything to do with the searing pain in his chest.

“Vanessa,” he mumbled dazedly, almost more to himself still than to the woman. He clutched at his shattered ribs with one hand and reached out to her with the other. When had he sat down? Why was she still so far away?

“See, that’s why you’re always getting in trouble, Deadpool. Just do your fucking job,” she snapped as she advanced. “This is why I keep saying we shouldn’t even be keeping unBonded Omegas around, much less totally untethered ones like you, but who listens to me? I’m only a fucking trained professional.”

“UnBon— what?” Wade asked through the haze. “What are you talking about? Of course we’re, I mean, I’m… what?”

“Jesus Christ. They clearly hyped you up too much.” Copycat drawled through a sneer, rolling her red eyes. That’s right, that’s who she was now. Vanessa had been gone by the time he had burned down all he could of Weapon X and fled back to Boston to search for her. It seemed they had gotten her too, after he disappeared and too many people found out just how powerful a mutation his sweetheart had been concealing for all those years. It was his fault they had even found out about her. If he had done a better job of cleaning up after himself at Hospice or waited longer to look for her, they might not have ever gotten her. He hadn’t even known she’d made it out alive until their new boss had sent her to check up on him and his current mission. He’d learned just who the metamorph assassin who’d joined their ranks and scared everyone shitless was when he was shot by her in this alley.

『I love watching you get your ass handed to you as much as the next guy, but this is gonna suck so, so unbelievably badly, even I don’t wanna be here for it.』

「Maybe she’ll change her mind?」

“Ness,” he whined weakly, finally trying to rise to his feet. He reached out for her again, tilting his headback and to one side to bare his throat in a desperate plea for his Alpha.

He’d mostly gotten used to the extra voices floating over his head in boxes no one else could see. He’d adjusted to the flashes of information he shouldn’t have and compulsive word-vomit that didn’t make sense to him even as he said it. He’d even figured out how to handle the times the world seemed to tip sideways and turn into a retro video game or a hazy 80s romance for unknowable stretches of time. But this? He didn’t feel like Wade, didn’t even feel like Deadpool. He was just some stupid Omega trying to get his shit together, a boy who couldn’t even fucking make it to his feet on his own because the Alpha who was taken away from him was standing too fucking close.

『This is honestly so fucking embarrassing.』

“Tolliver says to get your shit together and finish up this job. You’re taking too long. If I have to come back to do it myself, you’ll be part of the clean-up,” Copycat threatened, leveling a glare at him. “I don’t care how good your healing factor is. I’ll figure out a way to take you out so you won’t be anyone’s problem for a long, long time. I’m thinking a little concrete, mix in a dismemberment or seven, some caustic chemicals, maybe a dash of predicament bondage. It’ll be fun,” she chirped through a grin that was all bared teeth.

She knelt down in front of him and grasped his jaw forcefully. He tried and failed not to lean into the touch, warm even through his mask, or relax in response to the renewed proximity. “And Deadpool? Get some better scent-blockers in that suit. You _reek_ of desperate Omega.”

In a single, fluid motion, Copycat shoved him carelessly away and surged to her feet, straightening her sari as she rose. She stalked away from him as her body transformed into a willowy Bengali woman who blended into the deafeningly-loud, packed marketplace almost instantly.

『Man, she just fucking wrecked him so bad, I feel like we can take the rest of the day off.』

Wade staggered shakily to his feet.

「Y’know, **I’ll** feel better if we go kill something now.」

He collapsed back onto the trash heap she’d sent him sprawling into. He was going to finish this shitty assassination job, get back to the States, acquire the strongest suppressants possibly available, and possibly liquidate Tolliver while he was at it, just for funsies. Also he was never, ever coming back to Bangladesh again, for good measure.


	6. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 『White』 |「Yellow」<\- for folks with work skins turned off

『 _This_ was your bright idea? We do all that work to get out of some shady maybe-government-affiliated organization _again_ , go through the trouble of convincing Picard-on-Wheels and Mr. “It’s just a cigar, Bub” to recruit Copycat and all the other leftover mutants and mutates so they can keep an eye on ‘em, and come all the way out to Chicago to… What, exactly?』

Wade glowered at the sticky table. "The answer to your first question is shaddap." 

『Oh, that's right, to put the same stupid leather-and-kevlar red body condom on, and do the same job we just killed a bunch of people to get out of? What was the point of getting new digs in the Bay and setting up a contact point with that greasy nerd?』

“Weasel has good gear, don’t ask too many dumb questions, and knows how to keep his yap shut. Maybe take a leaf outta his book,” Wade groused without any hope that it would do anything. He nursed his beer, which he drank more out of habit than any interest in the taste. He certainly had no illusions that he’d be able to get any kind of buzz off it. He didn’t have the time or the money for the amount of hard liquor that would help him drown out the boxes or his anxiety.

「I like our job. It’s the only thing this loser is good at. And I like getting to pick how we do our job. **And** I like getting to pick how we spend our money, especially when we spend it on pretty new guns and on pretty people who are desperate enough for money to spend time with this nasty excuse for a face and worse excuse for a personality we’re stuck with.」

“You shut up too,” Wade grumbled, sinking even lower in his seat. He was ready to get out of the merc bar and away from the stink of ultra-violent Alphas and Betas with a chip on their shoulder. Away from the Hellhouse, away from Chicago or Boston or anywhere else that people actually knew him, away from… whatever, fucking everything. He was fucking tired. He was fucking bored. How long did it fucking take for Patch to get him a new job?

The first couple times he’d had a heat due after getting out of the Weapon X program, he’d tried doubling up on his suppressants to skip it, but it seemed they didn’t worked reliably on him anymore. This time, he just needed a job he could finish up quickly so that he had enough cash to hole up for a week or two, get this heat out of his system, and get past the few days before and afterward when he wouldn’t be able to go outside— because smelling any Alpha pheromones would send him spiraling into a panic attack, clawing at his skin and flashing back to the last time he had seen _her_ , or the way he’d been cut open and poked and prodded even more than usual during the heats he had endured when Weapon X had written him off and turned him over to Hospice.

“Nice of you to finally show up, Wilson,” Patch said gruffly when he finally made his way over to Wade’s corner of the bar, bushy eyebrows raised in mild consternation. “You ready to make some money?”


End file.
